Description

The purpose of this technique is to allow there to be more audio description than will fit into the gaps in the dialogue of the audio-visual material.

With SMIL 1.0 there is no easy way to do this but it can be done by breaking the audio and video files up into a series of files that are played sequentially. Additional audio description is then played while the audio-visual program is frozen. The last frame of the video file is frozen so that it remains on screen while the audio file plays out.

The effect is that the video appears to play through from end to end but freezes in places while a longer audio description is provided. It then continues automatically when the audio description is complete.

To turn the extended audio description on and off one could use script to switch back and forth between two SMIL scripts, one with and one without the extended audio description lines. Or script could be used to add or remove the extended audio description lines from the SMIL file so that the film clips would just play sequentially.

If scripting is not available then two versions of the video could be provided, one with and one without extended audio descriptions.

The markup above is broken into five <par> segments. In each, there is a <video> and an <audio> tag (the last <par> has no <audio> tag intentionally). The convention with extended audio descriptions is that the main media pauses during the description. The way to make this happen in SMIL 1.0 is to set a "clip-begin" and "clip-end" which dictate the start and end of the video clip, and to set a duration for the clip that is longer than what is defined by the "clip-begin" and "clip-end". The fill="freeze" holds the last frame of the video during the extended description. The <audio> tag has a "begin" attribute with a value that is equal to the "clip-end" value of the preceding <video> tag.

To determine the values for "clip-begin," "clip-end", and "dur", find the start and end time of the portion of the video being described, and find out the total length of the extended audio description. The "clip-begin" and "clip-end" define their own values, but the "dur" value is the sum of the length of the extended description and the clip defined by the "clip-begin" and "clip-end". In the first <par>, the video clip starts at 0 seconds, ends at 5.4 seconds, and the description length is 3.3 seconds, so the "dur" value is 5.4s + 3.3s = 8.7s.

Tests

Procedure

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Description

The purpose of this technique is to allow there to be more audio description
than will fit into the gaps in the dialogue of the audio-visual material.

With SMIL 2.0 it is possible to specify that particular audio files be
played at particular times, and that the program be frozen (paused) while
the audio file is being played.

The effect is that the video appears to play through from end to end but
freezes in places while a longer audio description is provided. It then
continues automatically when the audio description is complete.

To turn the extended audio description on and off one could use script to
switch back and forth between two SMIL scripts, one with and one without the
extended audio description lines. Or script could be used to add or remove
the extended audio description lines from the SMIL file so that the film
clips would just play uninterrupted.

If scripting is not available then two versions of the SMIL file could be
provided, one with and one without extended audio description.

Tests

Procedure

Expected Results

#2 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are blind
or otherwise have trouble seeing the video in audio-visual material to be
able to access the material. With this technique a description of the video
is provided via audio description that will fit into the gaps in the dialogue
in the audio-visual material.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Find method for turning on audio description from
content/player (unless it is always played by default)

Play file with audio description

Check whether audio description is played

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are blind or otherwise have trouble seeing the video in audio-visual material to be able to access the material. With this technique a description of the video is provided via audio description that will fit into the gaps in the dialogue in the audio-visual material.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Find method for turning on audio description from content/player (unless it is always played by default)

Play file with audio description

Check whether audio description is played

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

User Agent and Assistive Technology Support Notes

There is no universal standard format for representing captions in SMIL 1.0.
Different user agents support different caption formats. A file in a
supported format must be provided as the textstream src argument for the
caption textstream.

QuickTime supports QTText caption files. Real-based players, such as
RealPlayer and GRiNS, support RealText caption files. WindowsMedia supports
SAMI files, but does not support SMIL. Flash does not support a specific file type, but can parse XML-based caption file; actually the FLVPlayback component support for SMIL is intended to detect parameters like movie/server url or multi-bandwidth indications specified in a <switch> tag.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are deaf
or otherwise have trouble hearing the dialogue in audio visual material to be
able to view the material. With this technique all of the dialogue and
important sounds are available in a text stream that is displayed in a
caption area.

With SMIL 1.0, separate regions can be defined for the video and the
captions. The captions and video playback are synchronized, with the caption
text displayed in one region of the screen, while the corresponding video is
displayed in another region.

The example shows a <par> segment
containing a <video> and a
<code><![CDATA[<textstream> tag. The system-captions attribute indicates that the
textstream should be displayed when the user's player setting for
captions indicates the preference for captions to be displayed. The
<layout> section defines the regions
used for the video and the captions.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Enabled caption preference in player, if present

Play file with captions

Check whether captions are displayed

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

User Agent and Assistive Technology Support Notes

Only RealPlayer supports SMIL 2.0.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are deaf
or otherwise have trouble hearing the dialogue in audio visual material to be
able to view the material. With this technique all of the dialogue and
important sounds are available in a text stream that is displayed in a
caption area.

With SMIL 2.0, separate regions can be defined for the video and the
captions. The captions and video playback are synchronized, with the caption
text displayed in one region of the screen, and the corresponding video
displayed in another region.

The example shows a <par> segment
containing a <video> and a
<textstream> tag. The systemCaptions
attribute indicates that the textstream should be displayed when the
user's player setting for captions indicates the preference for
captions to be displayed. The <layout>
section defines the regions used for the video and the captions.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Enabled caption preference in player, if present

Play file with captions

Check whether captions are displayed

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are deaf
or otherwise have trouble hearing the dialogue in audio visual material to be
able to view the material. With this technique all of the dialogue and
important sounds are available in a sign-language interpretation video that
is displayed in a caption area.

With SMIL 1.0, separate regions can be defined for the two videos. The two
video playbacks are synchronized, with the content video displayed in one
region of the screen, while the corresponding sign-language interpretation
video is displayed in another region.

The example shows a <par> segment
containing two <video> tags. The
system-captions attribute indicates that the sign language video
should be displayed when the user's player setting for captions
indicates the preference for captions to be displayed. The
<layout> section defines the regions
used for the main video and the sign language interpretation video.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Enable control in content or player to turn on sign language
interpretation (unless it is always shown)

Play file with sign-language interpretation

Check whether sign language interpretation is displayed

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.

Description

The objective of this technique is to provide a way for people who are deaf
or otherwise have trouble hearing the dialogue in audio visual material to be
able to view the material. With this technique all of the dialogue and
important sounds are available in a sign-language interpretation video that
is displayed in a caption area.

With SMIL 2.0, separate regions can be defined for the two videos. The two
video playbacks are synchronized, with the content video displayed in one
region of the screen, while the corresponding sign-language interpretation
video is displayed in another region.

The example shows a <par> segment containing
two <video> tags. The systemCaptions
attribute indicates that the sign language video should be displayed
when the user's player setting for captions indicates the preference
for captions to be displayed. The <layout>
section defines the regions used for the main video and the sign
language interpretation video.

Related Techniques

Tests

Procedure

Enable control in content or player to turn on sign language
interpretation (unless it is always shown)

Play file with sign-language interpretation

Check whether sign language interpretation is displayed

Expected Results

#3 is true

If this is a sufficient technique for a success criterion, failing this test procedure does not necessarily mean that the success criterion has not been satisfied in some other way, only that this technique has not been successfully implemented and can not be used to claim conformance.